(WAFA) - The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem Thursday night in Ramallah honored the young Palestinian Acil Agha, who won the title of the best voice in the singing program ‘Ahla Sout Ghaneeha’ 2011 which is funded by the US Consulate.

The cultural Attaché at the U.S. Consulate General, Cynthia Harvey, Reem Mubarak, director of the program and the Rev. Metri al-Raheb honored and delivered the winner the first prize, which is a full scholarship in music performance provided by the Department of Music at Dar Al-kalema collage...Harvey told WAFA, “ We are always looking for new and different ways to engage with Palestinians, obviously there is a very important government to government relationship but there is also an important people to people relationship that brings Palestinian citizens with American citizens, so that’s one piece of this, which is for us to bring Palestinians and Americans together, as music is an international language.”...I’m always amazed by talents I see in young Palestinians.”

...[Mubarak] hoped that the US consulate continues funding this program in the future.

...Media and Cultural Consul at the U.S. Consulate, Frank Vnfr, said 'the Consulate is proud to support this program for the second year in a row to help the Palestinian students in various parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by discovering their talents and improving them.'

Jerusalem police reported, Sunday evening, that they arrested five female right-wing activists and a photographer near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City.

The Hebrew-language version informs us that the Tatzpit cameraman accompanying them who filmed the arrest was arrested and his camera confiscated. Advocate Yigtzhak Bam arrived at the Old City police station to demand his immediate release and return of his photographic equipment.

May I remind you of the dispute whether or not the media persons on the recent flotilla boats should be arrested and considered as partaking in an illegal activity.

...range from sports days that bring together youth from the consulate general with youth from the West Bank, to beer festivals showcasing local breweries, to Thanksgiving meals for unaccompanied post personnel. Whenever possible, CLO partners events with the community association, which has funds at its disposal, so that activities are often free to the participants. Because it is attentive to all sectors of the consulate general’s community, the CLO has a positive impact on post morale.

That's on page 53 of the report.

The mission of the C-G is defined on p. 1, thus:

• The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem deals primarily with the Palestinian Authority, whereas the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv deals with the Government of Israel. Inherent conflicts of perspective have inhibited coordination in some areas, but cooperation is significantly better than it has been in the past. The two missions should adopt a written clarification of their relations to prevent backsliding. Combining some administrative functions could save resources at both missions.

Moreover, on pages 17-18, in the section entitled "Public Diplomacy", we read that there are many activities and even physical locations of the C-G but that all are directed solely to Arab residents of the geographical area under the purview of the C-G, such as these:

...The consulate has opened a new program space, “America House”, in East Jerusalem, which is used for meetings, student briefings, film showings, and other events. American officers may not travel to Gaza because of security concerns, but Consulate General Jerusalem maintains a full program of exchanges, English classes, and speaker programs there, coordinated through creative use of digital videoconferencing...The PD section conducts outreach to the West Bank through a program space in Ramallah and American Corners in Salfeet and Jericho...The PD and management sections collaborated to open an America House program space in June 2010 in East Jerusalem. This facility does not have a resident director or wide array of publications but is instead a library space and multipurpose room in a facility operated by AMIDEAST, an American nongovernment organization that conducts Department-sponsored student advising and English classes for students. The loca­tion in East Jerusalem is an attractive venue for Palestinians. The PD section...also use the space as a convenient place to meet with contacts from East Jerusalem.

Similarly, the consulate general leases a program space in Ramallah to reach West Bank Palestinians who cannot come to Jerusalem without a permit. PD officers work closely in Ramallah with AMIDEAST, which is also active in the West Bank, facili­tating an array of official U.S. Government exchange programs...The consulate’s two other West Bank American Corners, in Salfit and Jericho, also make good use of outreach programs...Greater use of social media would be an effective tool in communicating with Palestinian audiences in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. A thriving environment for social media flourishes among Palestinians. Most Palestinians under 30 have Facebook accounts...The PD section plans to expand its use of social media to activate contacts...

There's more but the point has been made and that is:

There are almost 350,000 Jewish residents in the communities located in the territory for which the C-G is responsible (the almost 300,000 Jews in the newer Jerusalem neighborhoods and within the Old City is another matter). They do not benefit from any of these cultural, social or funding outreach activities and other programs and monies. Jews don't count, other than deserving consular needs like birth registration, visas, etc. In some instances they may even have been harmed (and here too; here; and here, as examples).

I think that is discriminatory.

I think that no matter what the diplomatic or political outcome of the negotiations, any boycotting of the Jews of YESHA first of all is illegal, it prejudges the outcome and worse, it assumes that Jews cannot and should not live there as it encourages the local Arabs to think that their apartheid approach has been adopted, in a practical sense, by the US State Department with full backing of the Administration. Jews are to be separated and considered by different, lower standards.

The French Foreign Ministry on Wednesday circulated comments made by Foreign Minister Alain Juppe last week saying that any solution to the Middle East conflict would need to recognize Israel as the nation-state for the Jewish people.

[“France has a very clear position that joins that of Spain and all of our European partners: It is that there will be no solution to the conflict in the Middle East without recognition of two nation-states for two peoples. The nation-state of Israel for the Jewish people, and the nation-state of Palestine for the Palestinian people. There is no getting away from this,” he said.]

Israeli diplomatic officials reacted very positively to Juppe’s statement, saying it was an indication that the Europeans were moving in the direction of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s position that recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people must be part of the parameters for future negotiations with the Palestinians

Israeli diplomatic officials said Juppe’s comment was significant on two counts...The second significant element, according to the official, was that Juppe’s comment about the “nation-state of Israel for the Jewish people” seemed a clear signal as to the type of language France would like to see in the Palestinian statehood resolution in order to gain its support. The official also said it was significant that the comment had been made at a press conference of the Spanish and French foreign ministers, not one between, for instance, the German and Italian foreign ministers, whose positions against the Palestinian UN vote are well known.

Kudos to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government for finally breaking a European taboo. At a press conference in Madrid last week, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe publicly declared that “there will be no solution to the conflict in the Middle East without recognition of two nation-states for two peoples. The nation-state of Israel for the Jewish people, and the nation-state of Palestine for the Palestinian people.”...This is truly groundbreaking. Until now, no EU country has been willing to state publicly that an Israeli-Palestinian agreement must recognize Israel as the Jews’ nation-state, though the EU routinely details the concessions it expects Israel to make.

By the way, Le Monde, if my French is adequate, doesn't mention that Jewish character aspect:

Demanding that Israel be recognized as the "national home" of a Jewish American, Canadian, South African or Argentine becomes problematic for many more liberal and secular Jews. Many Jewish Americans who've grown up with the melting-pot values of integration are not entirely comfortable with the idea that their religion assigns them a "national home" elsewhere - a 2007 survey of American Jewish attitudes to Israel found that only 54% of those under the age of 35 were "comfortable with the idea of a Jewish state."

Saturday, July 30, 2011

on behalf of American citizens born in Jerusalem who are denied the right to have their country of birth – ISRAEL – listed as their place of birth on their U.S. passports.

The case of Menachem Zivotofsky v. Secretary of State Clinton (No. 10-699) will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in November 2011 and decided by the end of June 2012.. At issue is the right of a Jerusalem-born American citizen to self identify as born in “Israel” on his or her U.S. passport.

For more information about the case, and to express your support please visit www.borninjerusalem.org, a website set up by The National Council of Young Israel and the International Israel Allies Caucus Foundation.

1. Learn more about the case of Menachem Zivotofsky v. Secretary of State.

2. Send a letter to your U.S. Senators and Congressional Representatives urging them to sign an amicus brief that will be filed on August 5, 2011 in support of Zivotofsky on behalf of Members of Congress.

3. Add your voice to the case. If you are an American citizen born in Jerusalem who wishes to have your place of birth recorded on your U.S. passport as “Israel,” please go to www.borninjerusalem.org and join the ad-hoc Association of Proud American Citizens Born in Jerusalem, Israel.
The Anti-Defamation League, together with the law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., is preparing an amicus brief to be filed in the Zivotofsky case on behalf of the ADL and the Association.

Did you know that the general rule for American citizens born abroad is that their U.S. passports list their country of birth as their place of birth? The only mandatory exception is for American citizens born in Jerusalem. The U.S. Department of State refuses to list “Israel” as the place of birth for American citizens born in Jerusalem because it claims that doing so would interfere with the President’s authority to “recognize foreign sovereigns.” Instead the State Department lists “Jerusalem” as the place of birth.

The State Department permits citizens born in Jerusalem or elsewhere in Israel before 1948 to list their place of birth as “Palestine.” Citizens born in the territories after 1948 have “West Bank” or “Gaza Strip” as their place of birth even though no American President has ever recognized such sovereigns. In addition, the State Department permits American citizens born in a city that is within the recognized boundaries of Israel such as Tel Aviv or Haifa to substitute the city of their birth if the person “object[s] to showing Israel . . . as their birthplace in the passport.” In other words, those who wish to remove “Israel” from their U.S. passports may go against the general rule and list their city of birth instead of their country of birth. But those born in Jerusalem who prefer that their passports follow the general rule (and list their country of birth as the place of birth) may not list “Israel” on their passports.

In 2002, Congress passed a law to rectify this inequity. The law required the State Department to list the place of birth on U.S. passports as “Israel” for those American citizens born in Jerusalem who request it. When the law was enacted, President George W. Bush issued a “signing statement” declaring that the law impermissibly interfered with his constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs so that he would not follow it.

Menachem B. Zivotofsky is an American citizen born in Jerusalem shortly after the law was passed. His parents requested that the place of birth on his U.S. passport be listed as “Israel.” The State Department refused, and instead listed “Jerusalem.” Nathan Lewin and Alyza D. Lewin of Lewin & Lewin, LLP, agreed to represent the Zivotofskys and have litigated the case pro bono for eight years. Their case has now made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear arguments in November 2011.

I find a report which informs us something many are not aware of, that thousands of Israeli youth are being taught to defend a dominance on the Temple Mount, under programs sponsored by a radical extremist religious-based movement.

One of the leaders exhorted the youthful participants in the program to consider themselves the "generation will be the generation of victory, the generation that defends the place".

So far, an estimated 6,000 Israeli children from 33 towns in Israel have taken part in the program, which includes a tour of the Temple Mount. Children are also given pamphlets with stories about the site.

If you are Jewish, don't feel embarassed. The youngsters involved are all...Muslim.

Thousands of Israeli Arab youth are being taught to defend Muslim dominance on the Temple Mount, under programs sponsored by the Islamic Movement, the Israel-based branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. “This generation will be the generation of victory, the generation that defends the place from which the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven,” according to Dr. Hikmat Namna of the Organization to Develop Al-Aksa, which has played a part in the educational program.

An estimated 6,000 Israeli Muslim children from 33 Arab towns in Israel have taken part in the program, which includes a tour of the Temple Mount. Children are also given pamphlets with stories about Mohammed and the Al-Aksa mosque. The northern branch of the Islamic Movement is lead by Sheikh Raed Salah, a Hamas supporter and open enemy of Israel who was recently jailed in Britain for violating a travel ban. Salah has previously stated that Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are exclusively Muslim, and has led attempts to boost the Muslim presence in the area.

The Al-Aksa Organization has released incitement regarding the Temple Mount as well, including accusations of Israeli attempts to damage the Al Aksa mosque and defile the area.

Do you feel better that they kids are Muslim rather than Jewish Yeshiva students?

Friday, July 29, 2011

On Thursday morning, I heard back from Rabbi Luzer Weiss, the director of the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Kosher Law Enforcement, who e-mailed:

I was at the store this morning and spoke to the manager. He said that this store at no time sells kosher meat and as a matter of fact specializes in pork cuts only. The machine was bought used and had been at the store only a few days. From what was on the label most likely the machine came from a store that sold kosher. He said an employee punched the key to print labels and put the labels the machine printed on the packages. When it was brought to his attention he had a person from where he bought the machine delete the words. The machine now can’t print any kosher labels—I saw it myself this morning and had labels printed which I took with me.

Police are investigating the armed robbery of Midwest Petroleum late Wednesday night.

According to police, two males wearing ski masks entered Midwest Petroleum at 1551 Hartman Lane around 10:45 p.m. One of the men was armed with a knife and he demanded the clerk open the register. The clerk complied and the robbers took more than $100 from the store's register before fleeing east, according to Shiloh Police Chief Jim Stover. The Fairview Heights Police dog assisted Shiloh Police in tracking the suspects but lost the trail about a block east of where the armed robbery took place.

"We think that's where they might have had a car parked to get away," Stover said. "The K-9 lost the trail completely at that point."

RASHAYIDA, West Bank (Reuters) - Hewn from rock, the cavernous cisterns which dot the desert beyond Bethlehem have for centuries harvested winter rain to provide shepherds and their flocks with water through summer. Under a baking sun, an elderly Bedouin explains how cisterns he remembers from childhood, many of them restored to full working order in the last few years, are once again helping his goat-herding community to survive.

Shepherds? Centuries?

Like

Genesis 37:2-17 ...Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, being still a lad...12 And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. 13 And Israel said unto Joseph: 'Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them.' And he said to him: 'Here am I.' 14 And he said to him: 'Go now, see whether it is well with thy brethren, and well with the flock; and bring me back word.' So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. 15 And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying: 'What seekest thou?' 16 And he said: 'I seek my brethren. Tell me, I pray thee, where they are feeding the flock.' 17 And the man said: 'They are departed hence; for I heard them say: Let us go to Dothan.' And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.

Genesis 46:33 And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say: What is your occupation? 34 that ye shall say: Thy servants have been keepers of cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers; that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.'

I Samuel 17:39-41: And David girded his sword upon his apparel, and he essayed to go, [but could not]; for he had not tried it. And David said unto Saul: 'I cannot go with these; for I have not tried them.' And David put them off him. 40 And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his scrip; and his sling was in his hand; and he drew near to the Philistine.

Do I mean to imply that this is the Land of Israel and since over 3500 years ago Jews have been living here and many of them were shepherds, some of them future Patriarchs and Kings?

And that Reuters would never think to assume that Jews belong in this land, at least as much as Arabs (and probably more)? Or would think of Jews as shepherds.

...Lawrence’s ideas then were no different to the usual construct of the noble savage so beloved by colonial types – the Sikh in India, the Pathan in Afghanistan, the Zulu in South Africa – all singled out and hero-worshipped for their “warrior” qualities.

Critics often, and rightly, accuse Israel and Washington of meddling in each other’s domestic politics. Yet the uniqueness and intimacy of the “special relationship” between the two countries make this meddling almost natural — if blatantly unethical. It is often intrusive and seldom effective. But it is a fact of life.

The history of U.S.-Israeli relations is replete with examples of influence peddling and power games. From Israelis trying to influence U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East by pitting both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue against each another to proxies for U.S. administrations who shamelessly play retail politics in Israel, this is hardly a shocking new phenomenon.

Arab recognition of Israel as the state of the Jews will not instantly resolve the conflict, yet their immoral and imprudent rejection of the concept will not affect Israel one way or the other.

Which means that Pinkas knows the Arabs will never make peace with us but he doesn't care. It's not about them - it is about us. And that is the classic approach of the League of Trembling Israelites: it's our fault.

So what is Pinkas doing now?

Well, he is meddling, unethical, playing partisan politics with Israel's future, underming the democratically-elected government of Israel and trying to peddle his reputation by pitting American Jews against each other and influence them, shamelessly.

Here's one even initiated by J Street:

Security, Politics, and a Two-State Solution: A View from Israelwith Shaul Arieli, Colonel (Ret.) and Former Head, Interim Agreement Administration and the Peace Administration; Shlomo Gazit, Major General (Ret.) and Former Head of Israel’s Military Intelligence Office; Alon Pinkas, Former Israeli Consul General in New York and Foreign Policy Advisor to Ehud Barak; Gilead Sher, Lawyer and Chief of Staff for former Prime Minister Ehud Barak

Another one was this, organized in cooperation with J Street (!) [see: "The Com­mon Good and J-Street co-host the next install­ment of our sum­mer Mid­dle East Brief­ing Series"):

The American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (AAJLJ) PresentsEnsuring Israel's Security Through a Two-State SolutionA Conversation with Ambassador Alon Pinkas

With a UN action on Palestinian statehood looming, Israel’s isolation in the international arena growing, and increased tensions in a region undergoing rapid transformation, Ambassador Pinkas, will speak about the urgency of a two-state solution to secure Israel's future as a Jewish, democratic homeland.

Ambassador Pinkas will address:

What should leaders do in advance of a likely September vote at the UN on Palestinian statehood?How do the dynamics of the Arab Spring affect Israel's prospects for peace and security?Does the planned reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas make a peace deal with Israel more or less feasible?

...found that Pinkas was generally respectful when he was speaking - but not so much when pressed on points with which people disagreed (i.e. he was a bit condescending) - he made this sweeping claim of urgency due to demographics and then refused to acknowledge that reasonable minds could disagree on that issue based on different data (yet barely acknowledged the fact that the '67 lines may not be defensible). He didn't answer questions b/c he couldn't (people were frustrated that they weren't answered). I walked away wondering what their agenda is b/c again, they can talk and talk until blue in the face about a 2-state solution being necessary but if they don't have any ideas about how to make that happen (other than keeping fingers crossed that Livni takes over in 2012), what is the point of all of this other than to give J Street legitimacy - and that is what bothers me about the AAJLJ hosting this and then defending J Street as pro-Israel. And I found it disgusting to watch Pinkas huddling with the J street rep as she sat there with a smug look on her face the whole time. The group was mixed but it was hard to tell what percentage was J Street...BTW - the average age had to be about 60 or older. So where were all of the young jewish lawyers in the city?!

... he never ever explained his ideas on how he and his compatriots plan on achieving a two-state solution with defensible borders, recognition of Israel, no right of return, etc...like Obama, he's like a child who just wants it and will bully, lie, and distort his way into getting it (or at least getting a free tour of the US - one person asked why he wasn't giving this discussion to the Arabs in say, Ramallah, instead of to Jewish lawyers on 5th Ave. and he said he'd rather be shopping on 5th Ave.)

So, we can conclude that Pinkas is a fraud, doesn't know his facts, purports to be in possession of other 'facts' and is basically sabotaging Israel's security and diplomatic and political standing in the US and amongst American Jewry. He is probably peeved that his diplomatic career was interrupted.

A group of former Israeli army officials and diplomats visited Washington Monday, claiming that a peace agreement with the Palestinians is urgent in spite of, and because of, regional turmoil, and that contrary to what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims, the 1967 borders are, in fact, defensible.

The group visited the White House on Monday and met with the National Security Council Director for Middle East and North Africa Steven Simon, and were to have meetings later in the evening with acting Middle East envoy David Hale and officials at the Pentagon.

J Street...brought in seven former Israeli officials to lobby Congress and the White House to accept the 1949 armistice lines as the basis for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations–loudly and overwhelmingly rejected by Israelis and the Congress. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected those terms in his visit to the U.S., his popularity jumped, and formerly anti-Bibi Israelis were telling the Washington Post: “Now he’s our guy. He’s the voice of Israel.” But this moment of Israeli unity and national pride was too much for J Street, which just had to find a way to bring them down. Reading Kredo’s story, I realized it’s not the moderates the Palestinian was talking about being unable to deal with; it’s the “moderates.”

Unlike actual moderates, who occupy the middle ground, these “moderates” are people who hold no principles, merely existing to tear at consensus and whose raison d’être is opposing whatever is being practiced at the moment by people they don’t trust. This has always been the case for J Street, an organization which announced its founding by simply attacking the existing infrastructure of pro-Israel support in crude, hyper-partisan political terms.

A judge on Thursday struck a measure from the city's November ballot that called for a ban on most circumcisions of male children, saying the proposed law violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom and a California law that makes regulating medical procedures a function of the state, not cities.

The ruling by Superior Court Judge Loretta Giorgi confirmed a tentative decision she issued a day earlier and came after she heard arguments from proponents of the ban, which would have made San Francisco the first U.S. city to hold a public vote on whether to outlaw the circumcision of minors.

...Giorgi, while acknowledging that "there is legitimate debate on the benefits and harms of circumcision," was not swayed and ordered San Francisco's elections director to remove the measure from the ballot. "I don't think there is any debate ... that this mater relates to issues of statewide concern," the judge said. The ban's sponsor, anti-circumcision activist Lloyd Schofield, said afterward that he was considering an appeal. "We will not stop until all men are protected from this damaging and harmful surgery," Schofield said.

...The city attorney's office had joined several Jewish organizations and Muslim parents in challenging the ban in court.

"It is up to parents to make the choice whether or not to have their baby boys circumcised," said Abby Michelson Porth, associate director of the Jewish Community Relations Council. "We did not want to have Mr. Schofield legislating our religious traditions."

...Critics contended the initiative posed a threat to families' privacy and to constitutionally protected religious freedoms. They cited comic books and trading cards distributed by the measure's proponents that carried images of a blonde, blue-eyed superhero and four evil Jewish characters. Outside the courthouse, anti-circumcision activists carried signs with slogans like "I did not consent to male genital mutilation" and a leaflet claiming that circumcision diminishes men's sexual pleasure...

Series of meetings with US administration officials reinforces defense minister's view that diplomatic crisis with Ankara must be resolved. 'I don't like it, but having reasonable relations with Turkey is not a bad thing,' he explains

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday, following meetings with US administration officials, that Israel must reach a compromise with Turkey – even if this meant the Jewish state would have to apologize for the deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last year.

"I'm not talking about an apology for the blockade or an apology for the flotilla, but about saying that if any errors were made during the operation – we regret them," he explained...

In a CBNNews report, on Israel's U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren visit to Jonathan Pollard in prison this past Tuesday, I admit I got a bit mixed up.

True, Jay's wife, Elaine, who accompanied Oren on the visit, said she didn't know "how much longer he can last in there" but this item also appeared:

Esther is reportedly battling cancer.(*)

The US has been especially cruel, and I would describe the attitude as one of "unusual punishment", and as well all know, the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the federal government from imposing cruel and unusual punishment for federal crimes. The amendment states, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted."

U.S. officials refused to allow Pollard to attend the funeral of
his father -- Professor Morris Pollard -- and is himself suffering a kidney condition which needs surgery.

However, Elaine seems to be caught up with health problems, too:

During the visit, Pollard reportedly struggled to keep his composure when talking about his wife's health.

It began with a slight discomfort, that gave way to pain, that began to get worse and worse. Then came the check-ups, x-rays, and biopsies. The result: in February, this year, Esther Pollard received the news that she had been stricken with cancer. Esther was terrified of how the news would affect her husband Jonathan and hesitated to tell him. After 14 years of incarceration in the U.S. for espionage on behalf of Israel, Jonathan is not well himself. In the end, she had no choice but to tell him.

"I was aware that Esther had some sort of medical problem," Pollard recalls, "but I had no idea it could be something this devastating. I thought it was something marginal. I remember clearly the day she told me.

...Jonathan and Esther Pollard - each in their own way- for more than six months, have been waging a battle with the cancer that threatens to end their love. Shortly after being diagnosed, Esther Pollard underwent an operation and a cancerous lump was removed from one of her breasts. An operation on the other breast also yielded up another lump, which fortunately turned out to be benign.

Following the operation, Esther refused to undergo chemotherapy. The reason: her insistence on hanging on to the possibility of bringing a child into the world with Jonathan.

Until now, the couple has kept this story secret. Today, on the eve of Esther Pollard's arrival in Israel to seek a meeting with the Prime Minister and other officials, she and Jonathan decided to end their silence.

...Pollard himself, speaking from prison: "I took Esther's illness very personally. It felt to me as if fate were conspiring to rob me of all that I have - of my chances, my hopes, my dreams, my future. I am angry with this miserable government of ours that is responsible for the fact that I wasn't able to hold my wife, to comfort her, to laugh with her, to be by her side for the operation, to wait for the results, which was very hard to do. And then the weeks after the operation. It was Hell. Esther and I were completely alone. There wasn't a single person from the Government of Israel that I could turn to. Not a single ear that I could whisper into, " Please. Help us. Do something for Esther. For me. Support us. Please. - There was no one to talk to at all."

In Pollard's words, they aren't battling just one cancer, but two. "One is the cancer that has stricken Esther. The other is the cancer of the hatred of the politicians towards me. I hope that Esther's cancer is in remission. But I know that the cancer of the government is still metastasizing. As long as Esther has a chance to live, I have a chance. And I blame this cancer that has stricken both of us, on the government."

Pollard has no criticism of his wife's decision to refuse chemotherapy. "It was her decision, and it reflects her total commitment to raising a family with me, without consideration of the danger to herself. I wish the government of Israel would have a scintilla of the kind of courage that she has, when it comes to what it takes to bring an agent home.

The assertion of Jewish rights to the West Bank doesn’t mean those rights can or will be exercised in all or even part of the land. But it does mean any negotiation over the land ought not to be conducted as a trial in which Israel is put in the dock for being in possession of stolen property.

That is the beauty of Ayalon’s video. It corrects the lies about Israel that have for too long gone unanswered even by its supposed advocates in its Foreign Ministry. But for those who want Israel to merely shut up and hand over all the land to the Palestinian Authority with no questions asked, the truth about the West Bank shouldn’t be told.

The Israel Police have told organizers of the monthly Circling of the Gates(which is an ancient custom, by the way) that they will not allow them to hold the event this Monday. They cited the proximity of the date to the start of the Muslim month of Ramadan. The Circling of the Gates – a parade around the Temple Mount – has been taking place every Rosh Hodesh (first of the Jewish month) for the past decade. Police have always barred the ceremony when it fell close to the end of Ramadan, but this is the first time that it is also cancelled before Ramadan.

...MK Uri Ariel (National Union) is not happy about the police decision. "The work that the Israel Police do is sacred and I have no doubt that they are thinking about how best to protect the participants. However, Jewish freedom of religion is also a basic right, and it would have been better if the Israel Police had placed the rights of the participants higher on its list of priorities...I am trying to find an arrangement vis-א-vis the police that will make it possible to hold the event, but right now the police insist on cancelling it," he said.

The police responded to the story by saying that this year, the date of the Av Circling of the Gates coincides with the evening prayer by 30,000 Muslims in honor of the coming of the month of Ramadan. Because of these "exceptional" circumstances the police had to cancel the Circling "in order to prevent friction between the sides."

In a publication of the Episcopal Church, which is a member of the Anglican Communion which is headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and "consists of an estimated 80 million Christians who are members of 44 different churches. These make up 34 provinces, 4 United Churches, and 6 other churches, spread across the globe". The Archbishop, has been a pain for a long time. (note this as well as, among others, this statement: "The Israeli-built West Bank security barrier is a symbol of what is "deeply wrong in the human heart", the Archbishop of Canterbury has said. He visited in February 2010)

In a recent occurence, reported in The 'real' future for Christians in the Holy Land by one The Rev. Vicki Gray, deacon at Christ the Lord Church in Pinole, California and a member of the Executive Council of the Diocese of California (and see the JC report), Rowan and his faithful are at in again.

It seems that in mid-July some 90 religious, political, and media representatives gathered at London's Lambeth Palace at the behest of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, to discuss in conference the situation of Christians in the Holy Land.

The purpose, according to Archbishop Williams, was to raise "literate, compassionate awareness" of the plight of Palestinian Christians in light of the "very significant" and "accelerating" decline of their population and to consider "What we can we do to help those Christians who so urgently want to stay in their homeland, and to imagine a future there for themselves?"

At the conference, Samer Makhlouf, a Roman Catholic, called the occupation "the father of all problems in the region." Gray noted

No wonder the population of Christians in Israel/Palestine has stagnated, growing only from about 150,000 in 1946 to fewer than 160,000 in 2006 rather than the far higher figure that might be expected from natural demographic growth. As the Palestinian Christian academic Bernard Sabellah noted, according to Allen, this stagnation is accounted for by the "missing" Christians who have emigrated.

And entering politics, she writes:

It is far past time not just to encourage, but to insist that the government of Israel cut the two-state deal demanded not just by justice but by the best interests of Israel. It is time for the Episcopal Church to consider and adopt a policy that will get the attention of the governments of Israel -- and the United States -- a policy of divesting from all companies that enable the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and boycotting all products manufactured in Israeli settlements in the West Bank or East Jerusalem.

The bleeding Palestinian Christians -- indeed, all Palestinians -- deserve not just our words, prayers, goodwill, and conferences. They are not just some object of abstract historicity and, therefore, in the eyes of our archbishop, "critical to Christianity's identity." They are living, breathing, bleeding human beings whose dignity we are called by our baptism to respect.

The JC informs us that a spokesman at the Israeli Embassy in London contradicted the Archbishop's comments. He said: "Christians in Israel are a flourishing community, fully integrated into Israeli life. We join the calls for other nations in the region to act on this, and hope that they copy the Israeli model on accommodating religious minorities."

But Foreign Office Minister Lord Howell we learn, highlighted the "difficulties facing Christians travelling between Bethlehem, Ramallah and Jerusalem, and said the British government was concerned about the future viability of the Christian community in the Holy Land".

Well, it will come as no surprise to you, my readers, that to my mind, the most threatened minority group that has actually suffered is the Jews.

The Jews are bleeding, have been bleeding and unfortunately, may continue to bleed and part of the responsibility for that is Christian identification, of various personnages and sects, with the "Palestinian Arab", the "he" who kills, attacks, riots, steals, commits terror, et al.

Reported that riot police fired rubber bullets at a huge crowd of young ravers rioting on Hollywood Boulevard. The youngsters threw bottles and set fire to cars after being denied entry to a Hollywood film première. The unruly crowd began partying on the streets in protest and when they refused to disperse, officers took drastic action.

Details:

Crowds spilled into the street around Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, with some people throwing bottles at police. Witnesses said others were dancing on a police car, taunting officers and "planking" — lying down in the street. There were also sporadic fights among people in the crowd.

Police in riot gear shut down streets around the theater, and dozens of other officers in police cruisers responded to the disturbance.

Photos: Disturbance outside the Hollywood film premiere

"I knew it was going to get out of hand when they started taunting the police," said Adam Bloch, 20, who works in a building across from the theater. "They were asking for it."

There were no reports of injuries or property damage. But by early evening, a row of riot police with masks and batons were pushing against the crowd. Police also fired beanbags to disperse people.

Late in the evening, the LAPD set up a mobile field jail at the scene. At least two people were arrested on felony vandalism charges.

The target audience of Mishkefet, which calls itself a "national acquaintance project," is secular Israelis who do not venture out to the West Bank settlements often, and the tours are due to explore historical and national Jewish heritage sites, as well as farms and other agricultural projects.

Mishkefet plans to bring half a million visitors on the tours, and will enlist the help of field schools to organize them. Participants will pay 45 shekels to take part, with the rest of the costs subsidized by donations to the foundation.

...the "Jewish state"...formula that is also unacceptable to us – two states for two peoples. They can describe Israel itself as a state for two peoples, but we will be a state for one people. The story of "two states for two peoples" means that there will be a Jewish people over there and a Palestinian people here. We will never accept this – not as part of the French initiative and not as part of the American initiative. We will not sacrifice the 1.5 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship who live within the 1948 borders, and we will never agree to a clause preventing the Palestinian refugees from returning to their country. We will not accept this, whether the initiative is French, American, or Czechoslovakian...

Breivik’s Zionism Is Fused with Fascism, Proving that for Today’s Neo-Nazis the Muslims Are “the new Jews.”

...According to The Daily Beast, Breivik is a typical neo-Nazi who, rather strangely, paradoxically, is also a Zionist. By definition, neo-Nazis and other fascists are not Zionists. In The Daily Beast’s opinion, “Islamophobia” is what currently unites European fascists/neo-Nazis and their allegedly “Nazi” leaning Israeli counterparts. However, Israel is not a “Nazi” state and it does not have an “apartheid” wall; it is a security fence, built only after Muslim Palestinian terrorists launched many thousands of attacks against unarmed Israeli civilians.

I have written many articles and a book, The New Anti-Semitism, which explain that Zionism does not equal racism; rather, today, anti-Zionism equals racism. Zionism is the liberation movement of a persecuted and oppressed people who are currently being demonized for daring to exist and to defend themselves. Israel, however imperfect, is still the only democracy in the Middle East and remains America’s only stable ally in that region.

Of course, The Daily Beast found a Jewish author to pen this claptrap, someone who just happens to have written a book about right-wing Christianity. Such ideologues are the first to condemn Judaism and Christianity as misogynist — but give a real Hail Mary pass to Islam.

The Israeli Mossad is not behind Breivik’s dastardly attacks, nor were they behind 9/11. Ironically, the Norwegian teenagers were being indoctrinated into anti-Israel activism on their idyllic island. There are many photos which show them holding banners saying, “Boycott Israel,” “Break the Siege of Gaza,” and “Tear Down the Apartheid Wall.”

However, this is standard fare all over the world today, and the Mossad is not gunning people down over it.

The Jerusalem March for Pride and Tolerance will take place Thursday, July 28th 2011, on the eve of the two-year commemoration-day of the murder at Bar Noar. The March will begin downtown in Independence Park, and march to the Rose Garden opposite the Knesset. The day of commemoration of the Bar Noar shooting is to us a day of painful memory. At the same time, it marks the LGBTQ community's organization into protest and struggle. It is a day that sounds the sirens for society to rectify itself, to reduce physical, verbal and institutional violence we face.

Our campaign for social amendment is intertwined in a mass of struggles for a more just society. For this reason, Pride will march in Jerusalem this year under the title “intertwined paths”. Our March will emphasize the partnership and need for solidarity between seemingly separate struggles to amend social injustices.

In the past year we admired the strength of the people in nations in our region to overturn regimes of political oppression. We were impressed by the struggle of the social workers and the doctors for more just employment conditions that will allow for quality healthcare and support structures for society at large. We witnessed the success of the women's movement to pin accountability for sexual assaults on the most prominent government bodies. Women and men around us conduct countless struggles for justice.

We stand with them, and invite them to march with us.

There are no platforms at Jerusalem Pride. The entire March is a platform for what you might do in it. We call upon groups and individuals to take an active role in the March; To create the March together with the Jerusalem Open House. We invite you to organize activities during the assembly, to register (in advance!) to the open stage that will run during Pride's assembly, and to create marching-groups for the March itself – using your own messages, creativity and style.

To all intents and purposes, the smug Israeli justices obviously prefer the contamination of the land and the resulting danger to Arabs - and Jews - from this untreated water situation. Obviously, the Arab owner should have been doing something or at least seeking to cooperate but as we know from the history of the conflict, no matter what benefit that may accrue them from working together with the Jews, the Arab will almost always chose an inferior result.

The High Court of Justice yesterday forbade operating a sewage treatment plant built illegally on privately owned Palestinian land in the West Bank settlement of Ofra. The ruling came in response to a petition submitted by Yesh Din on behalf of residents of the Palestinian village of Ein Yabrud against building the plant on their land.

The state admitted to numerous failures in the procedures of setting up the plant, which had indeed been built without the required permits on private land. However, the state said the region's sewage problems had to be addressed. For this reason the authorities formulated a proposal to confiscate the land for public need, to permit operating the plant, which would also serve the area's Palestinian villages, the state said.

The justices ruled it may not be operated and ordered the state and the Binyamin Regional Council to pay the petitioners' legal expenses.

...The authorities are now in process of amending and adjusting the procedure so the settlement may operate the plant.

This is the first initiative of its kind, dedicated to calling attention to this enforcement of the most savage elements of Islamic law against women: wives, daughters, and sisters. One can't even begin to fathom the lost dreams and ideals and promises and hopes for a full life extinguished by the tyrannical, hatemongering macho culture of Islamic supremacism.

Jeff, thanks for the compliment but not quite. The decades-old Mapai tradition is still strong and potent, dangerously so for Israel's security and existence.

Nevertheless, we're working hard, in a democratic fashion, to assure that Israel's best interests are promoted and no matter what policy is adopted, that historical and legal facts and thruths are presented.

This year, Ms. Kaufman did something more than tell jokes. She became one of the few adjunct professors in her age cohort and taught a course on Jewish humor at Hunter College, her alma mater. One of the jokes the class dissected:“The Frenchman says: ‘I’m tired and thirsty. I must have wine.’ The German says: ‘I’m tired and thirsty. I must have beer.’ The Jew says: ‘I’m tired and thirsty. I must have diabetes.’ ”

“We were not just telling jokes,” Ms. Kaufman said in her book-lined Park Avenue study, her eyes glinting mischievously. “We were investigating why so many comedians are Jewish and so many Jewish jokes are so self-accusing.”

“It goes back to immigration from the shtetl, from that poverty, and because the Jew was the object of so much opprobrium and hatred,” she said. “The jokes were a defense mechanism: ‘We’re going to talk about ourselves in a more damaging way than you could.’ ”

That psychological handicap applies to all the Ashamed Jews(see The Finkler Question: "In Jacobson's book, Finkler dwells among those miscellaneous Jews who answer the question in versions of condemnation of Israel, Zionism, and Judaism. Finkler is an anti-Zionist Jew who is comfortable in his outrage. The novel mocks them; there is of course much to mock. Among their number, for example, is a risible academic who insists that the Jews, "sent mad in the Holocaust, not least by their own impotence and passivity, [are now] spilling what was left of their brains over the Palestinians and calling it self-defence." Finkler joins "Ashamed Jews," a group of Jews proud to be ashamed of their Israeli or Israel-supporting fellow Jews. His first act is to modify the typography of the name, to bring out the group's affinity with the dead, good Jews of the Holocaust, and to intimate the affinity of bad, living Israelis with Nazis: "ASHamed Jews.")

The issue of refugees, of displaced persons due to military activity, is a constant theme in the Israel-Arab conflict.

Here's a newspaper report and the outlined-in-red section informs us that by December 4th (the issue date is December 5), over 800 Jews, yes, Jews, had been forced to flee the battle zone * of southern Tel Aviv and find alternate housing in synagogues and other temporary locations including an open field:

and if someone suggests that 'battle zone' means, well, it's the Jews' fault, let me remind you: the Arabs started an aggressive war against the Jewish community in Mandate Palestine in opposition to the UN recommendation of November 29, 1947. The fault lies with the Arab side that was violent from the outset.

i.e.:-

On December 15th, 1949 the Michigan Arab newspaper As Sabah (literally the Morning Tribune) published an editorial on the question of the Palestine Arab refugees:

“What is the crime of the refugees in the eyes of the lords of Arabia who stand by and watch the misery of the refugees, and who suck the blood of the poor and needy-without shame before God and the world? Yes the poor refugees committed the crime of listening to those deceivers, they believed the liars, and went to the extreme foolishness of leaving their homes, counting on their deceitful leaders to bring them back! And because of what is happening to the Palestine refugees, Arab public opinion is changing little by little to support the Jews in Israel where not a single Arab dies from starvation and cold! And if there should be another war, it should be against the Arab leaders, the princes and kings who brought this catastrophe upon the poor people of Palestine.”

The editorial’s analysis regarding Arab public opinion favoring Israel was incorrect, to say the least. But the claim that Palestinians fled their homes in response to Arab leaders has been controversial since the events occurred. The Palestinians of Michigan in 1949 thought this was the case.

The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem has issued the following notice:

All Mission employees and family members are advised to exercise extra vigilance and avoid large crowds during the upcoming month of Ramadan, which is expected to begin either on July 31 or August 1, 2011, particularly in Jerusalem’s Old City. Extremely large crowds can be expected, with a correspondingly heavy police presence on Fridays during the month of Ramadan. Additionally, personnel should expect significant traffic congestion, delays, and detours around the Old City and East Jerusalem, and should seek to use alternate or bypass routes whenever possible.

Furthermore, Jerusalem’s Old City will be off-limits to all official Americans and their dependents each Friday during the month of Ramadan. U.S. citizens are reminded that even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence. The U.S. Consulate General urges U.S. citizens to avoid the areas of demonstrations if possible, and to exercise caution if within the vicinity of any demonstrations.

Leviticus 18 seems fairly forthright on the subject of homosexuality: "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination." But Stuart (Noah Weisberg)—a gay gastroenterologist and a recent convert to Orthodox Judaism—thinks he's found a work-around. He argues that the text refers only to "anal penetration. So if I don't do any of that, I'm OK. Blessed."

Yet none of the characters in Jon Marans's ' Strange and Separate People' - a love triangle in which two of the characters wear yarmulkes — are particularly fortunate or glorified. None of them gets what they want, and what they want alters vastly, if predictably, in the course of the 90-minute drama.

...none of the roles feels fully inhabited, and the characters' backstories appear conveniently dramatic fillips rather than aspects of fully realized lives. Much of this owes to the script, in which characters narrate their distress with lines such as "So you never really loved me" and "Maybe you don't know me either." Marans has his hands on some powerful material, but another rewrite or two would seem a mitzvah.

Take it on faith, rather than from the formal dramaturgy, that Stuart (Noah Weisberg) has good reason to be sitting in the glatt kosher kitchen of a housewife named Phyllis (Tricia Paoluccio). Apply some of that faith, too, to the play's claim that this stressed-out woman somehow manages to run Phyllis's Orthodox Catering while caring for a severely autistic child and attending to the domestic needs of her old-school husband, Jay (Jonathan Hammond), a clinical psychologist specializing in "same-sex attraction disorder" and a devout Orthodox Jew who serves as cantor at the local temple.

Once past the awkwardness of all this introductory exposition, Jay and Stuart -- now revealed as having an existing, and most unorthodox relationship -- sit down with Phyllis to share in "the quiet beauty" of the Sabbath meal.

There is, indeed, quiet beauty in this scene, and the thesps play it well. Weisberg finds the religious sincerity in Stuart's busy-body directions on how to sing the blessing of the bread, Hammond discovers real feeling behind Jay's macho bluster, and Paoluccio is especially good at working her way through feisty Phyllis's dawning awareness that something is going on between these two men that is definitely not kosher.

Of course, there's another verse there, 20:23, which contains this prohibition:

Christian girls who go to church are 'more tolerant of other faiths than their peers'

the accompanying picture doesn't seem to be illustrating a shiksa but a nice Jewish girl who is also most probably a resident of Yesha and demonstrating on behalf of Jewish residency rights in our homeland.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Norway's ambassador to Israel drew distinctions between the Oslo and Utoeya massacres and Palestinian terrorism. Svein Sevje said in an Israeli newspaper interview Tuesday that while the Norwergian bomb and gun rampages that killed 76 people and Palestinian attacks should both be considered morally unacceptable, he wanted to "outline the similarity and the difference in the two cases. "Palestinians, the ambassador told Maariv, "are doing this because of a defined goal that is related to the Israeli occupation. There are elements of revenge against Israel and hatred of Israel. To this you can add the religious element to their actions."

..."We Norwegians consider the occupation to be the cause of the terror against Israel," he said. "Those who believe this will not change their mind because of the attack in Oslo."

Since we all know that Arab terror preceded the 1967 war, "occupation" cannot be the cause - unless, of course, all of Zionism and the return of Jews to their homeland is defined as an "occupation". And, I'm guessing, the ambassador and the political establishment of Norway does believe that. Like that "boycott" sign at the island the day before the slaughter.

Woe is Norway.

______________

UPDATE

OC informed me of It was a bit of moral equivalence on the part of Norway's Foreign Minister when reacting to a similar terror event to that of last week which occured here in Jerusalem, the massacre of high school students at the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva, when he linked IDF actions around Gaza to the Arab terroro.

“I strongly condemn yesterday’s terrorist attack on the Israeli students in Jerusalem. I would like to extend my deepest sympathy to their families,” commented Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

Eight students were killed and 11 injured when a Palestinian gunman opened fire in the library of the Jewish seminary Mercaz Harav in West Jerusalem on 6 March. This is the most serious terrorist attack in Jerusalem for four years.

“I am deeply concerned about recent developments, and hope that this incident will not have a negative impact on the further negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The increasing violence in recent weeks in Gaza and southern Israel is very worrying. The use of violence seriously undermines efforts to ensure lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” Mr Støre underlined.

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About Me

American born, my wife and I moved to Israel in 1970. We have lived at Shiloh together with our family since 1981. I was in the Betar youth movement in the US and UK. I have worked as a political aide to Members of Knesset and a Minister during 1981-1994, lectured at the Academy for National Studies 1977-1994, was director of Israel's Media Watch 1995-2000 and currently, I work at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. I was a guest media columnist on media affairs for The Jerusalem Post, op-ed contributor to various journals and for six years had a weekly media show on Arutz 7 radio. I serve as an unofficial spokesperson for the Jewish Communities in Judea & Samaria.